Some forty miles from home, located between Lasswade and Penicuik and standing on the banks of the River North Esk, the village of Roslin is particularly noted for its ruined castle and its Collegiate church. The castle was built at the end of the 14C by Henry Sinclair (St. Clair)the Earl of Orkney and the church, in 1446, by his son William the last Prince of Orkney.
Intended to be built as a full cruciform church, on the site of a former chapel, the church was never finished and consists of only a choir, sacristy and east transept. Not large, about 68 feet by 38 feet, the building has a tunnel vaulted roof.
Colloquially it is a ‘one off’ building that conforms to no style of architecture and has decorated carvings in a most amazing heterogeneous display of ideas ranging from biblical stories and beliefs on the one hand to pagan symbols such as the ‘green man’ on the other. There is also a large number of carvings depicting animals plants and flowers. Probably the most enigmatic of the carving are those of flora and fauna from the ‘New World’ carved some one hundred years before Columbus sailed on his epic voyage.
The initial, overall impression is one of being overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of detail depicted. Fortunately there are excellent sources of information in both the volunteers who are always around and the written descriptions.
Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland, Keay and Keay,1994 quoting others remarks that :-Every conceivable roof rib, capital, boss arch and corbel is encrusted whether human or animal figures mouldings or foliage." (JR Baldwin) Depictions include the Seven Deadly sins, The Seven Cardinal Virtues and statues of Apostles and Martyrs. "The sculpture has a denseness and repetitiousness that resembles a cake-icing or topiary more than carving in stone." ( C. McWilliam)